THE IMPACT OF SMS ON THE LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY OF LEARNERS

1.0 ABSTRACT

Electronic communication places a new demands on language that leads to

variations in written language use. Text messaging in the form of short message

services (SMS) has become one of the most successful mobile services in Malaysia

and another country. The use of this services is now well integrated into the everyday

life of humans. The cellphones that are conveniently used for social communication

are invaluably helpful but can equally be extremely detrimental to the learning and

development process of learners of other languages especially foreign language

learning. The short message service (SMS) language that is used by cellphone users

has also been discovered to be abundantly used by the learners in their written work.

This discovery has prompted one to investigate the impact of this prevalent use, for it

is believed that the SMS language is influencing the language proficiency of learners

in a negative way.

The purpose of this paper is to explicate how the SMS language affects the

language proficiency of learners.

2.0 INTRODUCTION

Communication succeeded to play a great role to create a daily contact between

the member of the society. Technology is one of the most important elements that

make communication easy and quick. In the recent years it represented a new genre of

communication that is of SMS messages. People started using SMS messages in each

time and everywhere : when driving, eating and even walking at the point that

sometimes they change their directions without paying attention to that.

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Notwithstanding the myriad benefits provided by the SMS in enhancing

communication and improving global business generally, the SMS has been found to

be of detrimental effect on the language proficiency of learners. Learners use it as if it

is an officially accepted and standard language. They mix it with the standard

language they learn at school, especially the English language and consequently

commit numerous errorsranging from incorrect spelling to ungrammatical sentence

constructions.

The aim of this paper is to show how the SMS influences the learners’ English

language proficiency.

3.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Biesenbach-lucas and Wiesenforth (2001), language is always

changing due to developments in communication technology, its change has recently

accelerated and led to interesting variations in written language use. For example, the

evolution of an abbreviated language is due to the shortcomings and the technical

restrictions of SMS as a means of communication. The existence of a common

background between close friends and family members seems to be another reason for

a reasonable use of syntactic and lexical short forms to save energy, space and time.

Since only a tiny space is available to communicate, the texter has to condense

meaning into a short message. A special shared knowledge is required to understand

this language variety, which is an indicator of group affiliation.

Since the language of e-mail and SMS messages is associated with acronyms and

changes in spelling norms (Abdullah, 1998), it is an inherently informal

communication system. The electronic age has provided a new context for the writing

process. University students are frequently engaged in electronic writing.

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Investigating the various features of written language found in e-mails and text

messages will have implications for writing and writing instruction. As pointed out by

Grinter and Eldridge (2001), it is interesting to see how and whether users find ways

of adapting the media to make themselves understood.

SMS language is also affecting the language of advertising. In advertising, short

sentences are preferred as they tend to be most appealing and they save space and

money. According to Erasmus-Kritzinger et.al. (2000:103) define “advertising” as:

a controlled, non-personal outward communication regarding a

need-satisfying product, service or idea which an identifiable sponsor

addresses to a specific target audience or target market for the purpose of

informing and/or reminding it and/or persuading it to take the appropriate

action.”

Furthermore Theo and Cutter (1971:16) affirm the notion that the SMS language

is appealing and evocative to the reader in this manner:

Small words are gay. And they can catch large thoughts and hold them up to

see, like rare stone in rings of gold, or joy in the eyes of a child. Some make

you feel, as well as see: the cold deep dark of night, the hot salt sting of tears.

Indeed, some authors use the SMS language to create book titles that would appeal to

and draw the attention of readers. One such title of a book about HIV/AIDS written

by Conlon et. al. (2004) reads:

How 2 b Aids Aware

It would be difficult for a person who is not conversant with the SMS language to

read the above title of the book. The SMS language is therefore not sympathetic to the

learning process of young and even adult learners of English as a second language

since it does not observe grammatical and syntactic rules of English language usage.

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According to the article by Rajesh Bhat (2007), the SMS culture has brought

about a revolution in India, particularly amongst the younger generation. Bidding

goodbye to the vowels and the age-old rigid rules of grammar, the youngsters across

the nation have coined a unique lingo that is almost posing a threat to the Queen’s

English, which is currently in use. With the whole lot of abbreviations like “C U

2nite” for “ See you tonight” or “C U l8er” for “See you later”, the new generation,

with a thumb on cellphones and ‘SMS language’ on the fingertips, has caused a furore

amongst the linguists, who see this culture having dangerous overtones. For the

linguists, the disease is spreading like ‘anthrax’ or ‘bird-flu’. Prof KB Razdan, former

Head of Department, English, Jammu University, the SMS is the corruption of

language and murder of alphabets, “SMS language is all artificial - a mockery with

the language. This SMS lingo is a challenge and should be stopped.” Razdan is,

however, a staunch believer that SMS language cannot in any way replace Queen’s

English. “As long as the language is used to communicate the thoughts, it is okay. But

the way it is reflected in the normal usage of language, it is a threat and needs to be

discouraged, since the ‘new language’ is full of aberrations and has artificiality,” adds

Prof Razdan.

The research by Sandra Barasa and Maarten Mous of Leiden University present

the findings of a study on graphones which is one of the creativity features of SMS

that could influence writing in English among learners. The data indicating the

graphones is derived from a data set of a more extensive research investigating the

manifestation of language in technologically mediated communication in Kenya. This

study defines the term graphone as a feature of SMS language in which words are

written the way they are pronounced (spoken like writing). This comes from the

words ‘graphic’ (written representation) and phone (speech sound). Graphone writing

in Kenya seems to be closely influenced by Swahili. Below are some examples of the

different types of graphones from the data set.

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Both the graphones in the original SMS and their translations are highlighted.

The message is followed by a translation into the conventional writing. Note that

some messages have used both Swahili and English words. The general English

‘translation’ is given below the examples.

(1) I kof @ ua thot, sniz @ ua smel n cry wen u smyl @ me coz u r 2 much 4 me

‘I cough at your thought, sneeze at your smell, and cry when you smile at me

because you are too much for me.’

In example (1), besides the pronounceable graphones, the writer has incorporated

the symbol <@> for ‘at’ and the use of single pronounceable letters, e.g. <n> for

‘and’, <u> for ‘you’ and <r> for ‘are’. Further, numbers have been used in place of

words that share their pronunciation, e.g. <2> for ‘to’ or ‘too’ and <4> for ‘for’.

(2) R u kamin 4 de recoln kesho? Op 2 c u ‘Are you coming for the recollection tomorrow? Hope to see you.’

In example (2), the word coming is spelled with a k. The final g is also deleted sincethe writer considers them as not pronounced and hence omissible. Similarly, h and ehave been left out in hope.

4.0 OBJECTIVE AND RESEARCH QUESTION

The purpose of this study is to analyze whether shortening up the words in SMS

will corrupt our’s language.

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5.0 METHODOLOGY

The data collection in this study is by 30 sets of survey questionnaire distributed

for 2 groups of people. The first group contain the 15 working staff at Public Bank

Berhad and the second group are 15 of University Utara Malaysia students, where 2

out of 15 are working and studying person.

The background information of these 30 respondants is between age of 15 to 45

years old. The majority of these respondants is come from Chinese ethnic follow by

the Malay, Indian and Siamnese, in gender of male and female.

This study was an attempt to answer the following questions :

(i) SMS activities

(ii) How would respondants shorten up the words in SMS

(iii) Agree or disagree shortening words in SMS will corrupt our’s language

6.0 LIMITATION OF SCOPE

The limitation in this study is 19 of the respondants are not provided the reason

on the optional question at the section D of questionnaire. Besides, 1 out of 30

respondants are omit to answer the question whether shortening up words in SMS will

corrupt our’s language.

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7.0 FINDINGS

The data gathered by several questions from survey questioannaire by 30

respondants on SMS activities was show by the below table.

  Questions (Q) Number (N=30)

    PBB UUM Others1 Do you have mobile phone? 15 15 -

2 Do you SMS? 15 15 -

3 Shorten up the words, abbreviate the words or chunk the words when using SMS

12 13 5

Figure 1: SMS Activities

7.1 POSSESS OF MOBILE PHONE

Figure 2 : Percentages on Possess of Mobile Phone

The chart above refer. Data gathered from the 30 respondants from Public Bank

Berhad (PBB) and University Utara Malaysia (UUM) was present that 100 % all

of them are using the mobile phone. From the result, nowadays the mobile phone

become a very universal technology in human life.

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7.2 SMS USER

Figure 3 : Percentages of SMS User

From the data collected, all of the 30 respondants are 100% using the SMS to

communicate with other people. This phenomenon is popular because sending

SMS text messages costs less than voice calls; moreover, incoming SMS are free

of charge.

7.3 SHORTHEN UP, ABBREVIATE OR CHUNK THE WORDS IN SMS

Figure 4 : Percentages Of Abbreviate Words in SMS

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According to the pie chart above, there are 13 respondants from UUM students

with high percentage of 43% will shorthen up the word when using SMS text

messages compared to the 12 respondants at PBB only 40% will shorthen the

words in SMS text messages. Moreover, there are only 17% by 4 respondants

where they will not abbreviate words when using the SMS.

7.4 SMS ABBREVIATION WORDS

Single Letters Words Frequency Percentages (%)

R Are 26 87%

U You 28 93%

Digits Words Frequency Percentages (%)

2 To 20 67%

9 Night 7 23%

1 Want 4 13%Acronyms & Abbreviations

Words Frequency Percentages (%)

I luv u I Love You 10 33%

Gd Good 15 50%

Wan Want 15 50%

Nite Night 6 20%

Figure 5 : The main text devices found in the analyzed SMS (N=30)

As delineated in the above table, since sending SMS messages can be

time-consuming due to the troublesome text entry on mobile phones, SMS

respondants employed text devices such as single letters, digits, abbreviation and

acronyms to replace words. A lot of words were shortened and combined with

numbers. Grammer, punctuation and capitalization were largely ignored. These

phenomena as a natural reaction to the 160-character limit of service on SMS text

messages.

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7.5 ABBREVIATION WORDS IN SMS CORRUPT THE LANGUAGE

Figure 6 : Percentages of Respondants to the Abbreviation Words in SMS

Corrupt The Language

Refer to the pie chart above, there are 67% (20 respondants) agree that

abbreviation words in SMS text messages will currupt to our’s language

especially affect our’s grammer and writing skills. Furthermore, there are only

30% (9 respondants) disagree with the statement, whereas only 3% (1 respondant)

have not given the respond to this question.

8.0 CONCLUSION

From the study, I strongly agree that abbreviation words in SMS will corrupt

our’s language. The revolution of mobile phone has brought new dimensions to

writing and its function society. This study has highlighted the impact of SMS on the

language proficiency of learners. The SMS language does not conform to grammatical

or syntactic rules of the English language, nor does it conform to spelling rules. It has

been indicated that the English language proficiency of the learners is negatively

affected by learners’ exposure to the SMS language both through the print and the

electronic media.

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A number of linguistic features used by the SMS writers such as abbreviation,

spoken-like spelling, less attention to punctuation and capitalization, as well as

syntactical and lexical reductions were well suited to the conditions of electric

communication to reduce space, time and effort. Therefore, the solutions to this

problem, SMS needs to be confined to its own communication context. It is then

advisable to show its differences from the standard language to the young people

affected the most. This can be done right in schools because students can made aware

of the differences between standard language and SMS language.

REFERENCES

1. Mohd.Sahandari Gani B. Hamzah, Mohd. Reza Ghorbani, Saifuddin Kumar

B.Abdullah (Nov.2009) The Impact of Electronic Communication Technology On

Written Language. Retrived from

http://www.teacher.org.cn/doc/ecedu200911/ucedu20091107.pdf

2. Mampa Lorna Mphahlele (2005).The Impact of SMS Language on Language

Proficiency of Learners and The SMS Dictionaries:A Challenge for Educators and

Lexicographers. Retrived from

http://www.iadis.net/dl/final_uploads/200506L022.pdf

3. Sandra Barasa & Maarten Mous (2009) The Oral And Written Interface in

SMS:Technologically Mediated Communication In Kenya.Retrived from

http://lotos.library.uu.nl/publish/articles/000313/bookpart.pdf

4. Mardziah Hayati Abdullah (Dec 1, 2003) The Impact of Electronic Communication

on Writing. Retrived from http://findarticles.com

5. Rajesh Bhat.(Oct 17, 2007) SMS lingo versus the Queen’s Language.Retrived from

http://www.merinews.com

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TABLE OF CONTENT

1.0 Abstract………………………………………………………….....1

2.0 Introduction………………………………………………………….. .1-2

3.0 Literature Review………………………………………………….......2-5

4.0 Objective and Research Question……………………………...……...5

5.0 Methodology…………………………………………………………. 6

6.0 Limitation of Scope……………………………………………………6

7.0 Findings……………………………………………………………......7

7.1 Possess of Mobile Phone…………………………………………...7

7.2 SMS User…………………………………………………..…….....8

7.3 Shorthen Up, Abbreviate or Chunk The Words In SMS……...........8-9

7.4 SMS Abbreviation Words……………………………………….....9

7.5 Abbreviation words in SMS Corrupt The Language………..……..10

8.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………….….10-11